A Lehigh Acres developer and builder of a gated community off of Richmond Ave. is upset about what he calls the high cost of obtaining a building permit for a house in Lee County.

Heinz Pfumer, who heads the family firm of I&E Inc. in Lehigh Acres, wants to get the word out about what Lee County is asking people building new residential homes in Lehigh to pay for obtaining a building permit.

“I have talked to a lot of people in and outside the community in Lehigh Acres and nobody could believe what Lee County is charging for a residential building permit for a ‘starter’ home, especially when comparing it to neighboring counties,” Pfumer said.

He noted that to build a home the buyer needs a permit for a single family home of 2,600 square feet total area, having three bedrooms and two bathrooms and you have to cough up $16,311.03.

“You can almost purchase a foreclosed home of comparable sizes for that amount of money in Lehigh these days. And of particular interest is that the identical home in Hendry County only carries fees of $2,558.86 and the identical home in 2007 only cost $10,006.94 to permit,” he said.

Pfumer is angry and says he believes he and others have a right to be.

He said that through his service on various community organizations, including as a board member of the board of trustees of the Lehigh Regional Medical Center, he has mentioned this topic to a lot of community leaders and none of them are aware of those expenses being charged to people building new homes here.

“As you can imagine when reading on he ridiculous amount of impact fees charged is a deal breaker most of the time and Lee county is knowingly hindering and destroying the very industry which helped increase the tax base and revenue for the county.

“It is irresponsible the way Lee County is currently governing and about the greedy and despicable actions of our county commissioners. How can Commissioner Frank Mann expect the residents of Lehigh to volunteer on a board working with the county staff to implement a plan for the future of Lehigh Acres when Klee county is actively and effectively destroying Lehigh Acres through hindering and effectively avoiding any new construction of single family homes in our community?” he asked.

Pfumer and his family owned business is a general contractor in lee County since 1994.

“We are a family owned and operated business and are facing great challenges like any other construction related business in Florida.

“It is extremely discouraging to see that Lee County has tripled road impact fees for new permits since 2007. I don’t think the pubic is really aware of how our local government is squandering our money and to what extent local government is hindering any recovery of real estate,” he said.

Pfumer said he has asked a clerk in Hendry County why their permit fees are so much lower and that Hendry County is suspending impact fees to stimulate new constructions.

“That’s a smart thing to do as any business would lower prices to stimulate more business, correct? Lee County seems to follow a different philosophy, which is that if business is down, one must raise their fees in order to generate the same income with fewer clients., Even a third grade student knows that this thinking is flawed, but somehow no one is holding our leaders accountable” Pfumer said.

The current administration in Washington has put into place an unprecedented amount of money to “simulate” the economy and improve the infrastructure. Pfumer says an important part of the infrastructure are our roads.

The current administration under Florida’s Gov. Charlie Crist has accepted its share in stimulus funds.

“But even though there is stimulus money available to improve and upgrade roads, new home owners are now asked to pay three times as much as in 2007 for new roads. This hardly seems fair or reasonable, especially considering that we are mostly dealing with first time homebuyers, young families and retirees in Lehigh Acres. This is no means an affluent area,” Pfumer said.

The issue with the increased costs for permits raises some interesting and hard questions for the voters in Lee County.

“Are our commissioners willingly increasing cost in order to still finance a lavish and admittedly ineffective organization? Are commissioners knowingly maintaining an overblown bureaucracy which at this time is obviously financially unfeasible? Are commissioners not able to tackle those hard questions and make those hard decisions as the voice of the consumer is not heard in Lee County?

“Why is it that Hendry County understands the mechanism of a free market and Lee County acres as if nothing has happened over the past three years and people are still lined up for the privilege to build a home in lee county,” he said.

Pfumer says in his opinion, it is hardly the right way to increase impact fees because there are less people building new homes and therefore the individual price has to be increased to meet the budget.

Pfumer believes it is time for Lee County citizens to wake up and demand responsible and decisive leadership of our county commissioners.

“It can no longer be business as usual and the time for action is long overdue.

Pfumer noted that the county is losing many people who have lived here for a long time. He believes that if the government doesn’t revisit the way things are done in lee County there is no way that we will recover from this recession any time soon.

“Real estate, construction and tourism are the pillars of our local economy, yet, our local leadership is treating those industries as revenue generators and is not fostering an environment for those industries as revenue generators and is not fostering an environment for those industries to recover and prosper.

Pfumer said that during the boom days, his company had some 70 employees. But now the company is down to three employees.

“And if the local politics continues in this way, we will be forced to also leave Lee County and do business in ‘friendlier’ areas, where creating jobs, doing business and building homes for new residents is appreciated and welcomed.

“We as a county are in a dire situation,” Pfumer said.